BACKUP & REACH
The A7III is a fabulous camera but it comes at a fabulous price, so there's no real chance of having a backup A7III in case things go wrong. So what else could be used as a reasonable backup, with exactly the same lens-mount, high pixel count, fast drive speed and great sensor at a stupidly low price?
The answer is of course, is a used A6000...
Sony a6000 key features
- 24.3 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
- Bionz X image processor
- Hybrid AF system with 25 contrast-detect and 179 phase-detect points
- Built-in flash + Multi-Interface Shoe
- 11 fps continuous shooting with subject-tracking
- 3-inch tilting LCD with 921,600 dots
- OLED electronic viewfinder with 1.44M dots
- Diffraction correction, area-specific noise reduction, and detail reproduction technology
- Full HD video recording at 1080/60p and 24p; clean HDMI output
- Wi-Fi with NFC capability and downloadable apps
This is a super compact body which can easily be popped into your camera bag. All my Sony lenses can fit it including the FE 90 2.8, the FE 24-105 and the monster FE 200-600. And because the A6000 has an APS sensor, it means that all the focal lengths are increased by 1.5X, taking the 200-600 to a whopping 300-900mm monster zoom 😲
I had a similar setup some time ago in my Nikon days. I used a full-frame D610 and an old but mint D80. When used with the Sigma Bigma, the D80 produced some impressive wildlife captures where the full frame D610 just wouldn't have had the reach.
With the 24-105, I'd have a tiny camera with a compact and astonishingly sharp 36-158mm zoom - perfect for travel pix.
The A6000 I chose was a mint+ used model for just £200 with a very low shutter count - a real find! This camera was launched in 2014 so it surprises me how people think that their equipment depreciates so little over 7 years. Anyway, I managed to find a good one at a sensible price.
Needless to say, it looks a bit odd on the end of a 200-600, but it's actually a good marriage and results in a combo that provides astonishing reach. And that OSS really helps out. Of course the images can't quite match those of the A7III, but it's good to know that you've got something which will produce a decent capture when the A7III can't be used for whatever reason.
